Two Americans Fighting with Israeli Forces Killed in Gaza

Two Americans who volunteered to fight with the Israeli army were among those killed during the current incursion into Gaza, the State Department said late Sunday.

In a brief statement, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki identified the dead as Max Steinberg and Sean Carmeli. She provided no additional information.

Max Steinberg in an undated photo posted on Facebook.Facebook

NBCLosAngeles reported that Steinberg, 24, was a Woodland Hills, California, native who graduated from El Camino High School and attended Pierce College in Los Angeles before joining the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). News of his death was first reported by the Jewish Journal, a Los Angeles newspaper, it said.

The Alegemeiner news website, which says it covers Jewish and Israeli news, said 21-year-old Nissim Sean Carmeli had lived in South Padre Island, Texas, before volunteering for duty in the IDF's Golani Brigade. It said both Carmeli and Steinberg were killed along with 11 other members of elite unit in the Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya, considered a Hamas stronghold.